Also Today in Millennials: Thought Catalogstrikes back at notorious hater Tim Herrera and his so-called “Washington Post“, and some Thoughts have definitely been Cataloged. “It’s almost as if Woodward and Bernstein thought it would be hilarious to interject potty humor into the greatest American political crisis of all time, like two children in the bathroom at the White House, playing with doodoo in the toilet and smearing it all over the wall – writing stuff like “I love poop,” and “I love to eat diapers.” Then they kiss the poop and say the poop is good when actually poop is bad.” This is one of the more comprehensible passages.

I mention oxygen here because respiration is universal; I don’t know that there’s a more primal, physical fear than not being able to breathe. Hold your breath for as long as you can, right now. Wait until you feel your lungs involuntarily spasm. Ignore that. Keep it in for just a little longer. Think: that’s the closest you’ve come to death in a while, isn’t it? A minute longer and you wouldn’t need to hold anything in anymore. There’d be nothing to hold, no person to do the holding.

My point, if it wasn’t clear, is that I can’t describe Erica’s experience in any terms but the most fundamental. This is what structural racism feels like, except instead of your breath it’s your career, your prospects, your hopes, your dreams, your very life—all being choked by an implacable force outside of yourself. And you can never catch your breath.